Alumni Builder Award Recipient Guided by ‘Wise Mind’ Decisions

Skylar Bown

“Creating a safe space for Indigenous youth to be unapologetically themselves, traditional, loud, quiet, victorious and defeated, is all central to my outlook on sport and reconciliation.”

Skylar Bown (BHK’20, MPT’22) is a 2024-25 Alumni Builder Award recipient. The co-founder and co-operator of Remote Rehab, she is a compassionate and dedicated physiotherapist committed to delivering accessible and personalized healthcare solutions to underserved populations. She focuses on ensuring that Indigenous, Northern, and rural communities have equitable access to care.

Beyond her clinical practice, she actively promotes sports as a means for reconciliation and healing. She also serves as a mentor and motivator through her role as a track-and-field coach, and chairs KidSport Kelowna, where she leads efforts to dismantle barriers that prevent youth from participating in sports.

What motivates you to serve your community?

SB: In both sports and academics, I received strong support from my family and friends. As I got older, I recognized that not everyone has this privilege. I want to be able to provide that opportunity for youth in sport to have healthy role models. Sport is a building block of interpersonal skills, leadership skills, friendship, self-realization and the concept of being active for life.

I feel especially strongly about this in an Indigenous sport setting. I was lucky enough to attend the North American Indigenous Games as a coach for the athletics team. It was beautiful to see how tradition and Indigenous ways of knowledge and being can be integrated into the sport setting. I think that I learned more from the youth I was coaching than they did from me. Creating a safe space for Indigenous youth to be unapologetically themselves, traditional, loud, quiet, victorious and defeated, is all central to my outlook on sport and reconciliation.

You also serve communities through your work as a physiotherapist. How has your physiotherapy practice evolved?

Remote Rehab started as a passion project between my partner and I—he is also a physiotherapist. We were inspired by our research project in school that explored virtual physiotherapy in a remote setting for those who received knee and hip replacements. Despite having very few participants, we were able to tease out that the value of receiving physio care virtually far outweighed receiving no care at all. This inspired us to find a way to bring physiotherapy across the province in a more inclusive, through telehealth.

Physiotherapy is a broader profession than I really understood growing up (I only attended as an athlete). For example, physiotherapy for our aging population can reduce the risk of falls and the need for elders to leave their homes as they age. Remote Rehab took a turn when we decided to trial our model in acute care hospital settings in the early fall. Since then, we have been providing services two hospitals. We are have been building a relationship with the Upper Similkameen Indian Band and have met members and provided physiotherapy services to their band in-person.

The biggest barrier to physiotherapy in rural settings is access, so I believe that we are breaking down these barriers by simply being accessible. As long as a patient has internet, a camera, microphone, and a space to do a session, they can access physiotherapy.

Skylar Bown standing next to Similkameen Indian Band Health Centre sign at side of the road

You have spoken about making ‘wise mind decisions.’ How has this approach served you?

I think the best piece of advice I ever received was from my mom in twelfth grade when I was deciding whether I should choose human kinetics or applied sciences as my top choice in my university applications. She encouraged me to practice using my wise mind, over a solely reasonable or emotional mind. Emotionally, I was passionate about sport and movement, but reasonably I was proficient in math and physics. In the end, I chose what makes my heart sing, while considering that kinesiology incorporates physics as well as my love for human movement.

“My advice to undergraduate students is that six years from now you will look back and be proud of yourself regardless of the bumps in the road. Listen to your body, take breaks, treat yourself with grace.”

I certainly use my wise mind to this day when it comes to juggling my various roles as a coach, physio, KidSport chair, partner, friend, daughter, you name it. We make decisions every day on how we would like our life to go. If you’re only acting with passion or rationally, you might miss out on the best of both worlds (wise mind decisions).

What is a philosophy of health and wellbeing that you live by?

SB: Definitely movement and especially intuitive movement, are central to me. I think that the way we move our body should never be as punishment. Able-bodied people are lucky to be able to express themselves in ways that feel good, so I think we should! That doesn’t mean I don’t think powering through a bit of discomfort is not warranted sometimes (especially in my practice), but in the grand scheme of using our bodies, we should enjoy using our body. Each individual knows themselves best and following your intuition is valuable in allowing ourselves to be happy and healthy.